Just off Horizon - First B2B Cruise

[Terab85]

Once we got back on the ship, took more pictures of the port. 

 

 

 

[Terab85]

We did Pig & Anchor for dinner.

 

 

Then walked around and found the ships coin.

 

 

Can't forget a beautiful sunset.  I don't know about anyone else, but there is nothing like watching a sunset over the ocean ❤️ 

 

 

Walked around before heading to back to cabin.

 

 

 

My favorite evening cocktail - Chocolate martini ❤️ 

 

 

 

Next up - La Romana 

 

 

[Terab85]

You can see La Romana in the distance.

 

 

 

We got in late (11:00) and and had no plans.  We had breakfast in the dining room and then went to the Military Appreciation gathering.  So nice that Carnival does this. 

 

 

 

 

We had no plans again in La Romana, so we just got off the ship to shop and then right back on.  It was SO hot.  

 

 

 

 

 We went to the Tides Pool again and just enjoyed the day. We did notice a lot of people either stayed on board or got off and back on like us.  The pool was pretty crowded.

 

 

[Terab85]

Heading to dinner.  One of the few times I remembered to take pictures of the menu.

 

 

 

 

 

The buffalo cauliflower was BOMB!!!  

 

 

 

Next - Amber Cove

 

 

 

Edited October 4, 2021 by Terab85

[Terab85]

Having a hard time editing, so please forgive the duplicate pictures.

[urbanhawk]

42 minutes ago, Terab85 said:

Having a hard time editing, so please forgive the duplicate pictures.

No  problem for me seeing the duplicates! Enjoying your  photos, and stories.  The chocolate martini looks good. I'd try it. I don't know if 007 would, as  he likes his martinis "shaken, not stirred"!😁

[Terab85]

Good morning Amber Cove

 

 

 

 

 

Look what was waiting for us this morning on deck.

 

[Terab85]

CC is giving me all kinds of grief today.  By the time I finish this, I'll be ready to cruise again in April 😛 

[skrufy]

On 10/3/2021 at 3:47 PM, Terab85 said:

Little background about us.  I'm 54 years old and semi retired (I worked as a sub for after school program, but with covid, I was in no rush to go back to work).  Traveling with my DH who is 52.  We were cruising with friends that we had met on a 2015 cruise on the Liberty and this will be our 5th cruise with them.  I haven't done a trip report in years, I didn't take notes so I'm going from memory (*lol*)  and I'm far from a decent writer, so bear with me.  

 

We were on the Carnival Horizon from September 22 - October 2, 2021 doing our first ever B2B cruise.  I was going to try and do this live but just never found the time.  For this cruise, we had to do the 2 day testing. We were originally planning to get tested Wednesday and leave early Thursday morning from north Georgia and drive straight to Miami.  With the new change, we had scheduled 8:15am & 8:30am appointments and then planned to get on the road and stop in Orlando for the night before continuing to Miami on Friday morning.  We kept hearing about appointments being cancelled at the last minute and people scrambling to find a new location.  With that said, DH ordered the proctored at home tests which we received that Wednesday morning.  DH got up on Thursday morning at 3:00am and was done by 3:15am and I was done by 3:30am both being negative.  If Carnival continues to require the 2 day test, we will do the at home tests again.  We ended up getting on the road by 4:30am and took our time.  Since we had planned to stop in Orlando, we kept those reservations. We ended up staying at the Fairfield Inn & Suites Orlando near Universal.  We picked this one because one, it was free (we used points) and two, it was close to the turnpike.  The hotel was nice but definitely older and in need of some TLC.  We ate at the Miller Ale House and toasted that after 6 cancelled cruises, we were finally getting back on a ship.  The food & service were great.

 

Don't judge the picture.  We had been up since 3:00am 😵

Know how you guys feel, we are up at 2am for a 65 mile bus ride to the airport. We have been cruising for many years and many 14 day cruises, but never a B2B. We also have had 6 cruises cancelled. Will be doing our first B2B and  Christmas Cruise this December. Will enjoy all your thoughts about your B2B experience.

[skrufy]

19 minutes ago, skrufy said:

Know how you guys feel, we are up at 2am for a 65 mile bus ride to the airport. We have been cruising for many years and many 14 day cruises, but never a B2B. We also have had 6 cruises cancelled. Will be doing our first B2B and  Christmas Cruise this December. Will enjoy all your thoughts about your B2B experience.

Beautiful pictures. 

[Terab85]

14 minutes ago, skrufy said:

Know how you guys feel, we are up at 2am for a 65 mile bus ride to the airport. We have been cruising for many years and many 14 day cruises, but never a B2B. We also have had 6 cruises cancelled. Will be doing our first B2B and  Christmas Cruise this December. Will enjoy all your thoughts about your B2B experience.

I think Carnival did a great job with the b2b especially with the new protocols. I will talk more about the process as I go.  

[Terab85]

We didn't get off the ship since we'll be here for our 2nd leg.  Here are some pictures of the port.

 

[Terab85]

We hung around the Tides pool again today.  It was HOT! 

 

 

Got some lunch and walked around.  The lido pool was packed.

 

 

 

When we got back to our room, we had our B2B information for testing the next day.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 4, 2021 by Terab85
Fixing pictures

[Terab85]

September 25, 2021 - Last Sea Day

 

I didn't take a lot of pictures today since we had our covid testing to do and we were changing cabins (wasn't able to get the same one) so there was packing to be done.  Our letter said that we needed to go to the Limelight Lounge between 10:00-10:30 for testing.  Once we got there, we checked in and we're given numbers and told to sit and wait.  This is also where testing will be done for unvaccinated kids.  A doctor came over after a couple of minutes and explained the process.  We were taken over to the side where they did the swab test on both of us.  Now all we had to do was wait the 15 minutes for the results.  We sat and waited for our numbers to be called which was right about 15 minutes.  We were both given letters telling us we were negative.  Yay!!!    After testing,  back to cabin to pack.  

 

 

I finally remembered to take a picture of our cabin door. 

 

 

 

I absolutely LOVE the funnels that are in the atrium and casino area.  I'm not sure I saw a repeat on either. 

 

 

 

 

Finally remember to take a picture of the menu but not of the food 😛  The Baked Alaskan is my absolute favorite dessert ❤️ 

 

 

 

After dinner, we went to the Celestial Strings show followed by cocktail and then bed.  Tomorrow we'll be in Miami and it's great to know we don't have to rush to get off the ship and drive home.

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow - Miami 

 

 

Edited October 4, 2021 by Terab85

[Terab85]

I'm starting to hate CC 🙄

[Terab85]

We were up at 6:00am to see (push) our friends off the ship.  Miami skyline is beautiful.

 

 

We got the rest our stuff together.  Our suitcases needed to be ready by 8:30am.  Went to the lido to have a bite to eat and wait for our 9:15 meet up in the dining room.  With covid protocols, disembarkation was a little different.  If you were doing self disembarkation, you were called by your muster station number.  If you were doing checked luggage, it was the same with the luggage number you got.  There were lots of people hanging out in lido waiting for their number to be called.  We headed down to the Reflections dining room about 9:00am.  We were given a glass of mimosas and they came around to take our old S&S card and given our new cards. 

 

  

We also took our B2B photo which Carnival provided for free.  Sat there awhile because they were waiting for 2 passengers to leave the ship.  Turns out they were also sitting in the dining room waiting, not knowing this was a B2B group.  Once they left, we finally were escorted off the ship, through customs (they did the face recognition) and then back on the ship.  I think they said there were 62 B2Bers and we were all on board around 10:30.  We rushed back to our new cabin that was just on the other side of the ship (same deck) and began the unpacking yet again.  We were able to leave all our clothes that were hung up and they moved those (plus our suitcases) to the new cabin. 

 

Our DD and her boyfriend were joining us on this leg of the trip and they also got the 10:30-11:00 check in.  She was checked in and they were boarding the ship by 10:50.  We dropped their bags in our room and then went to get a drink.

 

 

Once they were able to get into their cabin, they spent time getting things organized (DD takes after her old mom). 

 

 

They were in cabin 10231 (we were 10233).  Funny how I took a picture of their cabin and but ours 😛 

 

 

 

Coast Guard going after stupid people

 

 

 

 

 

Good bye (again) Miami

 

 

 

We loved our wait staff so much last week that we changed our dining from early to anytime so we could have them again.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 5, 2021 by Terab85

[Terab85]

CC really must hate me.  No idea why some pictures are posting twice 😞 

[Terab85]

So this portion of our cruise is a 6 day going to Bimini, Half Moon Cay, and Amber Cove.  We had no plans for Bimini, so we were going to sleep in and take the kids to the Tides Pool.

 

[Terab85]

Tonight was formal night, so we got dressed up and took pictures then to the dining room for diner. I forgot to take pictures of the menu and the food.  I know I did eat 3 lobster tails 🙄

 

 

 

 

I forgot to mention on the first part of our cruise that even though I didn't take pictures, we went to the Ocean Plaza almost every evening to listen to music.  Our favorite was the Horizon Rock Band aka the Quaratones.  They were SO good, we tried to catch them anytime we could.  They did a show called ONE NIGHT ONLY that is a must see.

 

 

Tomorrow - Half Moon Cay

[Terab85]

So I forgot to post this when we were in Miami but worth seeing.

[Terab85]

September 28, 2021 - Half Moon Cay

 

We were up early just in time to watch the sunrise.

 

 

 

 

We were lucky enough to get invited through our FB group to hang out in the Private Oasis.  We had to meet in the Liquid Lounge at 7:30 but really didn't need to be there before 8:00am.  By 8:30, we were on the first tender (I know they "call" it something else now) and heading to the island.

 

 

 

The views were amazing

 

 

 

 

 

We were able to snorkel right off the deck. 

 

 

 

 

We were provided with a chef who cooked us lunch and open bar (limited beer/cocktails).

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 5, 2021 by Terab85

[Terab85]

Half Moon Cay was amazing.  Nothing like floating in the water all day and having someone making you drinks 🍹  Unfortunately we had to leave 😞  Started to head back to the ship around 3:30pm.

 

 

 

I'm not sure what we did the rest of the day besides take a nap but the sunset was pretty amazing.

 

 

 

Tomorrow - Sea Day

Edited October 5, 2021 by Terab85

[Terab85]

I've been having a hell of a time posting today and finally had to open another browser.  Hopefully this works 😛 

 

 

September 29, 2021 - Sea Day

 

 

Woke up to this amazing water.  I don't think I've ever seen it so calm.

 

 

 

 

Since we were out in the sun all day yesterday, I'm taking a break from laying out.  Today was sea day brunch which was great (I'm sorry no menu or food pictures).  DH and I planned to finally go see a movie in the IMax theater which is an extra charge.  I believe it was the National Parks which was really good and totally worth the $5.50 each.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the movie, went sat on our balcony and enjoyed the beautiful water (and shade).  We were doing JiJi's tonight, so I think I might have run up to the Serenity salad bar for lunch.

 

This is the second time we've eaten at JiJi's on our b2b.  Food was amazing as always.

 

 

We went to comedy but for the life of me can't remember the name.  Definitely need to be better at writing things down in the future.

 

 

 

Tomorrow - Amber Cove

 

 

 

 

 

[JaniceB]

Thank you for doing a review on the Horizon.  It is helping me pass the time until I board her on Oct 30th.

[Terab85]

September 30, 2021 - Amber Cove

 

We only had a shopping day planned in Amber Cove, so after breakfast, we headed into port.  I guess I should have mentioned what the mask requirements at the ports were.  Since we didn't get off on Bimini I'm not sure but someone had posted that it was a $200 fine for not wearing one 🤯   Half Moon Cay we had to wear a mask while on the tender but once on island, we were good.  Amber Cove required one even outside unless you were at the pool or eating/drinking.  It was hot but it wasn't a huge deal for us.

 

 

 

 

 

You can all enjoy attempt at jumping (or lack of) for this photo but the kids loved it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After we were done shopping, the kids wanted to go back to the ship.  We usually walk but decided to take advantage of the bike taxi.  It is free but a tip is appreciated (and frankly SHOULD be given considering what they are hauling 😛 ).

 

 

 

 

 

After we were back on board, we changed and headed to the Tides Pool.  We walked past the Lido pool and I couldn't believe no one was there.  Of course it was only 10:30am but still.

 

 

 

The Tides pool didn't get busy until well after 12:00 which was nice.

 

 

 

I'm sure we went to take a nap before dinner.  Again I have no pictures of the menu and/or food.  I'm really not great at doing this 😞  Our waiter Bryan was so entertaining.  

 

 

 

Another thing we loved to do after seeing the comedians and having evening cocktails is go to the front of deck 10 and stargaze.  It's amazing what you can see when your away from city lights.  Not sure how ell this picture turned out considering it was my phone.

 

 

 

Tomorrow - Last Sea Day 😞